Guide
AI form-check and rep-counting apps in 2026: what each one actually does.
There are now a dozen iPhone apps that point a camera at you and promise to count your reps or check your form. They are not all the same thing. Some watch you live and talk; some grade a video afterwards; some only judge squat depth. This is a plain account of what each one does, from its own listing and the reviews we could find, so you can pick the right kind before you pick a brand.
How this was put together, so you can weigh it: we read every App Store listing, help page and independent review we could find in October 2026 and quote what they say. We did not run the same sets through every app, and prices are what the listings showed that week; they change. We make one of these apps, and we say so plainly where it comes up. Corrections to [email protected].
First, the three kinds
- Live coaches. The camera watches the set as it happens, counts, and tells you something about the rep right then. The useful ones speak; the rest show a colour or a score on screen you can't look at mid-set.
- After-the-fact checkers. You film a set, then the app grades the video: a depth verdict, a score out of a hundred, a bar path. Good for a question you have about one lift. Not coaching.
- Plan apps with a camera feature. A workout-plan subscription that added form analysis as one feature among many. Worth knowing the feature exists, and worth checking the reviews on how well it works.
The apps, side by side
| App | Kind | What the listing says it does | Movements | Video | Price (as listed, Oct 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loopform AI (ours, in beta) | Live coach | Counts reps and says what it sees out loud mid-set; builds an adapting weekly plan; logs food by voice and photo; a coach you can talk to between sets. | Six core patterns tuned on real sessions, 45 more marked camera beta. | Stays on the phone unless you share a clip. | Rep counting and cues free; the coach by subscription, price shown in the app. iPhone now, Android in January. |
| Skeletal PT | Live coach | Real-time pose detection that counts reps and checks back rounding, knee cave, depth and tempo; a rep only counts when form meets the standard; a 60-second form check that scores squats and deadlifts out of 100; voice coaching listed as a paid feature. | Listing claims more than 500 exercises. | Not stated in what we read. | Free manual tracking; AI camera, overlays, clips and voice are in-app purchases, amounts not shown in the listing. |
| Form Coach (All Things AI) | Live, on screen | Live skeleton that turns green, yellow or orange, a form score per rep, session replay and weekly form reports. No accounts, no cloud, no network calls at all, by its own description. | About 38 bodyweight exercises. | Entirely on the phone. | Free, no subscription. |
| Replo | Live counter | Counts push-ups, squats, sit-ups, jumping jacks and pull-ups from the camera, with a consistency score for how steady the reps were. | Those five bodyweight movements. | Processed locally, per the listing. | Free with in-app purchases, amounts not shown. |
| SquatEye | After the fact | You pick a squat video or photo from your camera roll; it finds hip crease and knee and gives Pass, Fail or Borderline against the powerlifting depth standard, with a margin, for every rep in the clip. | Squat depth only. | Your saved video; not stated whether it leaves the phone. | Free to try; Pro listed at $9.99 a month in one place and $4.99 in another. |
| Zing (Zing Vision) | Plan app with a camera feature | AI-generated plans and workouts, with a camera feature that tracks movement in real time and gives technique insights. One independent review calls the accuracy inconsistent. | Not stated per movement. | Not stated in what we read. | Premium around $18.99 a month in an April 2026 snapshot; unclear whether the camera feature is inside Premium. |
There is also a growing cluster of single-lift graders, sold one movement at a time: a deadlift checker, a squat checker, a barbell-path scorer. They work the SquatEye way, on a video you already filmed, and the honest ones say so. And there is Kemtai, a computer-vision coach that one roundup rates best for home workouts in 2026; it is built for guided sessions rather than for your own lifting, which is a different job.
The ones that are gone
Camera coaching has a graveyard, and it is worth knowing why. Peloton Guide, a camera box for the TV, was discontinued in 2025. Flex AI, a camera-based personal-training app, shut down in March 2026, with its founders saying the economics were almost impossible to win. Onyx, one of the first camera form apps, was discontinued earlier. The pattern is the same each time: hardware, or a server doing the vision work for every user, and a price that couldn't carry it. Every app in the table above runs the camera work on the phone; that is not an accident.
How to choose
- You want a verdict on one lift you already filmed: an after-the-fact checker. For squat depth specifically, SquatEye is the narrow tool built for exactly that.
- You want free rep counting on bodyweight work, nothing else: Form Coach, which asks for nothing and sends nothing anywhere.
- You want a plan first and a form feature second: a plan app; read its reviews on the camera feature before you pay for it.
- You want a coach that counts and talks during the set, then builds your next week from it: that is the thing we built Loopform AI to be, and the reason the counting and cues are free is so you can judge the camera before you pay for the coach. It is in beta; the six core patterns are solid and the rest are labelled beta in the app.
Questions to ask any of them
- Live or after? If it can't tell you mid-set, it is a grader, not a coach.
- Does it speak? A colour on a screen at knee height is a colour you will never see while squatting.
- Does the video leave the phone? The listing should say. If it doesn't, assume it does.
- Which camera angle, and does it tell you? Knees caving are only visible from the front; depth only from the side. An app that never mentions this is guessing. How to film your lifts has the table.
- What happens when it's wrong? It will be, sometimes. The good ones let you say the number and move on; the bad ones argue. Can an app count my reps? explains why misses happen.
- Which movements, really? "500 exercises" and "tuned on real sessions" are different claims. Ask which ones have been tested on people who look like you.
Sources
- Skeletal PT on the App Store
- Form Coach on the App Store
- Replo on the App Store
- SquatEye on the App Store
- Zing on the App Store and a Techpoint review of Zing
- SensAI's 2026 roundup (a vendor's list) and AI Tools Bakery on pose-correction apps
- BetaKit on Flex AI shutting down
Rep counting and form cues are free, with or without a subscription. Video never leaves your phone unless you share a clip. Android arrives in January.